The essay is entitled 'Dell's Supply Chain'. It's a descriptive business case about the uniqueness and strength in Dell Computer Corporation Supply Chain.

THE SUPPLY CHAIN OF DELL COMPUTER

INTRODUCTION

Appealing to exactly what the customer wants would ultimately be an ideal organisational objective for a business entity if it is aiming for profits. And being able to do it without an additional cost to the customer, would be too good to be true! This however, is actually the edge for Dell Computer when it took the computer industry by storm with its direct model distribution and build-to-order manufacturing. And amazingly, Dell's prices are very competitive, in fact, cheaper than most of its competitiors' off-the shelf models!

Not surprisingly in 2001, Dell emerged as the number 1 computer systems company in the world and earned the number 7 spot on the Fortune magazine list of the world's most admired companies (ZDNet India,2002). So, what can the secret be for this infant computer company to be able to offer such 'ideals' to customers? To a large extent, Dell's supply chain configuration and operations has a major role to contribute to this capability. Dell's supply chain is chosen to discuss the issue in this assignment because of its compelling role in contributing to Dell's outstanding performance in a highly competitive industry.

This essay will examine the unconventional structure and design of Dell's supply chain as influenced by the nature of products and services offered by Dell. In addition, the measurability of the performances of these supply chain design will also be addressed.

DELL'S PRODUCTS AND THE BUSINESS ORIENTATION

Having positioned itself as one of the leading world-class computer corporation over a relatively short period, Dell's main product categories are typically:

· servers, storage and networking

· notebooks and desktops

· printers

· handheld products

· software and peripherals, and

· related services.

This product range serves virtually any computing need of the industry and home...